Digital signage and IPTV: live TV and your own content on the same screen
A news channel running on one side, your internal messages on the other, and a single interface to steer it all. E-MANAGER’s IPTV module brings your TV streams into your digital signage playlists — up to 16 channels, in HD or 4K.
Definition
What exactly is IPTV?
IPTV stands for Internet Protocol Television — television carried over a computer network rather than by cable, satellite or aerial. The programme arrives as a stream that any connected screen can play, including a digital signage screen.
A TV channel becomes an address on your network
In practice, an IPTV encoder takes a video signal in (the HDMI output of a set-top box, a control room, a camera) and turns it into a stream your local network can carry. That stream has an address. Paste the address into E-MANAGER and the channel appears on the screen of your choice.
What this changes for communication: TV stops being an island. It becomes one piece of content among others, scheduled just like a poster or a video.
- ✓Carried over your local network or your internet connection
- ✓Up to 16 simultaneous channels on a single site
- ✓HD or 4K quality, with the bitrate matched to each screen
- ✓No coaxial cabling to run out to the screens
Sources & streams
Where does the stream you are going to broadcast come from?
This is the first thing to settle, and it is a hardware question before it is a software one. Three cases cover almost every installation.
Three ways to obtain a stream
1. You start from an HDMI source. An operator set-top box, a player, a control room. The IPTV encoder plugs into it and publishes the stream on the network. Models such as the Aver SB 520 or the Triax encoders do this job.
2. Your building already has an IPTV network. This is common in hotels and hospitals: the streams already exist, you simply need their addresses.
3. Your provider gives you stream addresses directly. In that case there is no extra hardware: you enter them in E-MANAGER.
Getting started
Broadcasting a channel on your screens, step by step
Allow half a day for a first site, encoder included. No video expertise is required.
1. Make the stream available
Plug the encoder into your HDMI source, or collect the stream addresses already in service in the building.
2. Add the stream in E-MANAGER
In the platform you create a stream-type content item and paste its address into it. It joins your library, just like an image or a video.
3. Build the playlist
You place the channel in the screen layout: full frame, alternating with your posters, or in a zone if you split the screen.
4. Send it to the screens
The broadcast goes to an IPTV-compatible screen or to an E-BOX player connected over HDMI. The result is visible straight away.
Screen split
TV on one side, your messages on the other
This is the feature that changes the most: one screen carries both a programme that draws the eye and information that is useful to you.
A TV zone, an information zone
With E-MANAGER’s screen split, you divide the display area into independent zones. One zone carries the TV stream. The others take whatever you want: weather, internal news, call numbers, indicators, the daily menu.
Each zone keeps its own schedule. The match carries on while the right-hand column cycles through your announcements — nobody has to choose between entertaining and informing.
- ✓Resizable zones, in landscape as well as portrait
- ✓Independent scheduling per zone
- ✓The TV stream stays smooth while the other zones cycle
- ✓A layout you can reuse across a whole estate of screens
Scheduling
Switching between TV and your content at the right time
A screen does not play the same role at 8 am and at 7 pm. Time-based scheduling handles that switch for you.
The channel becomes a playlist item
In E-MANAGER a TV stream behaves like any other medium. You slot it between two posters, give it a time slot, decide which days it applies to. The rest happens on its own.
A telling example: in the morning the lobby screen shows company news and the weather. At lunchtime it switches to the news channel during the break. Late in the afternoon it returns to internal messages. Nobody has touched a remote control.
- ✓Time slots and a calendar for each content item
- ✓Automatic switching between TV and scheduled content
- ✓Different scenarios per screen, per zone or per site
- ✓Remote control from a browser, or from the mobile app E-TV LINK
Comparison
Standalone TV set, IPTV alone, IPTV + digital signage
All three approaches broadcast television. They give you very different control over what your visitors actually see.
| Criterion | Standalone TV set | IPTV alone | IPTV + EMITY digital signage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Updating a message | Impossible without walking up to the screen | Impossible: the stream is fixed | In a few minutes, remotely |
| Content other than TV | None | None | Posters, videos, weather, indicators, menus |
| Several channels on one site | One set-top box per screen | Yes, depending on the installation | Up to 16 simultaneous channels |
| TV and information at the same time | No | No | Yes, through screen split |
| Time-based scheduling | Manual | Depends on the equipment | Time slots and a calendar per screen |
| Multi-site control | Screen by screen | Site by site | Centralised in E-MANAGER |
| Cabling | Coaxial or aerial out to every screen | IP network | Your existing IP network |
Functional comparison based on the scope of E-MANAGER’s IPTV module (Excellence plan). What an IPTV-only installation can do varies with the hardware in place.
Benefits
What you gain day to day
A single point of control
TV, posters, videos, widgets: everything starts from the same interface. No more mislaid remote control or USB stick to carry around.
Bandwidth under control
Compression adapts to each screen’s connection: you keep an HD or 4K picture without saturating the building’s network.
Two messages, one screen
The TV zone captures attention, the information zone puts it to use. The same display hardware serves two purposes.
Days that run themselves
Time slots switch content at the right moment, including at weekends and on closing days.
A whole estate at once
A change propagates to one screen, one site or the entire network, whichever you choose.
No installation overhaul
IPTV uses the network you already have. Existing screens connect through an E-BOX player when they are not IPTV-compatible.
Sectors
Digital signage and IPTV for your line of work
The same module, very different uses. Here are the four settings where it is most in demand.
Hardware
Which screens does it work on?
The short answer: yours. The IPTV module does not require a dedicated estate.
Screens, kiosks, tablets
If your TV set is IPTV-compatible, a network socket is all you need. Otherwise the E-BOX player connects over HDMI behind the screen and supplies whatever is missing — in HD, 4K or 8K depending on the model.
This is where EMITY’s universal compatibility counts: we do not impose a screen brand on you. Samsung, LG, iiyama, Philips, or a mixed estate built up over the years — it is all managed from the same platform.
- ✓IPTV-compatible TV sets and professional displays
- ✓Any HDMI screen, through the E-BOX player
- ✓Interactive kiosks and wall-mounted tablets
- ✓Nothing for your visitors to install
Where it fits
Where does IPTV sit in the EMITY range?
IPTV is not a separate product: it is an advanced feature of the E-MANAGER platform, unlocked by the Excellence plan. Here are the building blocks involved.
E-MANAGER
The web platform that brings together your screens, your content and your playlists. Everything is steered from here.
Excellence plan
The subscription that unlocks IPTV, along with all the widgets (Power BI, YouTube, music and more), E-CLICK interactive display and single sign-on.
E-BOX
The EMITY player (HD, 4K or 8K) that makes any screen with an HDMI input compatible.
IPTV encoder (third party)
The hardware that converts an HDMI source into a network stream. Aver SB 520, Triax or equivalent.
E-TV LINK
The mobile app that acts as a remote control for your screens. A complementary product, separate from the IPTV module.
Support from your reseller
The EMITY suite is distributed through more than 130 certified partners in over 20 countries: installation and training are handled close to you.
EMITY
A module proven in the field
A French software company based in Montpellier, EMITY has been building its software suite since 2018 and distributes it through a network of certified resellers. French Tech Montpellier label, Réseau Entreprendre laureate 2019.
+7 000
connected screens
+1 000
customer accounts
+130
distribution partners
+20
countries
Frequently asked questions
